Owner of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope
Rabbi Katy Z. Allen is the founder and leader of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, a congregation without walls that meets outdoors all year long. She is the co-convener and President pro-tem of the Boston-area Jewish Climate Action Network, and the founder of the One Earth Collaborative, a program of Open Spirit in Framingham, MA.
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Earth Etude for Elul 12 – The Season of Change
by Rabbi Howard Cohen Fall is the season of change. Leaves turn colors, days grow shorter, and birds begin to migrate. Animal fur grows thick; layers of fat are laid in. Water warmed all summer by the sun slowly begins to sink to the bottom of the lake and displaces the colder less dense water. Everywhere you turn, change is in the air. When I think of the high holy days I think of change. Our ancestors called this change ...
Earth Etude for Elul 11 – A Thorny Dilemma
by Rabbi Judy Weiss My younger son left on July 16 to take a job in Israel. As he was packing, he asked me when would I visit him. I choked out the words, "I'm not going to visit you." Actually, I would love to visit, see what his life is like in Tel Aviv, and spend time with him. Yet, I'm afraid my trip would destroy his future. If I visit, flying 12,000 miles round-trip, my share of the plane's carbon ...
Earth Etude for Elul 10 – Ready for Withering Flowers
by Sarah Chandler I'm familiar with your story This gratitude you cultivate helps ground you And yet, do you really deserve to ask for more? The answer to this question will give you the balance you seek Sometimes you need a reminder that we already said farewell to the month of Av As it is written in Job: "Man born of woman is short of days, and fed with trouble. He blossoms like a flower and withers, ...
Earth Etude for Elul 9 – Calling For This Year’s Blossoms and Weeds
by Rabbi Dorit Edut This year I decided to take photos of my garden during each of the different seasons, and it is quite amazing to see the development of the various perennials and how the overall face of the garden alters. It is quite astonishing, too, to find flowers growing in places we never planted them – including a beautiful white hydrangea bush that seems to have come ...
Earth Etude for Elul 8 – An Etude for an Ode
by Maggid David Arfa As I enter into teshuvah, into fierce self examination, into the landscapes of guilt and renewed responsibility, I worry about stumbling into the bottomless pit of despair. After all, in systems, every part matters. In systems, every individual action contributes to outcome. How do I feed family fights, community squabbles, ruined habitats and global wars? The list grows and grows and the pull ...
Earth Etude for Elul 7 – For the Gardener
by Judith Felsen My Love, You made for me a garden filled with care and sown with grace. Your seedlings flourish, offerings of life and sustenance. Each shining leaf extends a blessing from Your heart to mine, delicious kisses placed upon my lips, digested gratefully with prayer. There is no source but You and through Your garden light does ...
Earth Etude for Elul 6 – Today the World is Born
by Rabbi David Seidenberg On Rosh Hashanah we hear the shofar and call out, "Hayom Harat Olam"! "Today is the birthday of the world; today the world is born." So says the liturgy according to most readings. And this birthday is not just one of celebration: "Today the world stands in judgment." These two motifs alone should give us pause today to consider what we are doing to the ...
Earth Etude for Elul 5 – Journey to a Mountain Pond
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen The word makom in Hebrew means place, or space, but it has also come to be a name of G!d. Some places take on more significance in our lives than others. They touch us more deeply, or are associated with significant memories. For me, one of these is a place I have come close to, but have not yet seen with my own eyes. Yet just through proximity, it has touched me deeply, ...
Earth Etude for Elul 4 – Rainbows
by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein “Red and yellow and pink and blue, purple and orange and green. I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow tune.” There are many songs about rainbows. This is one that I learned at Girl Scout Camp many years ago. Since that summer rainbows have had a special place in my heart. Learning the story of Noah in a parshat hashavua class in college was ...
Earth Etude for 3 Elul – Paying Attention to Roots
by Maxine Lyons Being a passionate gardener, I have been tending several gardens in my yard as well as many flower pots on our large deck so my hands are in dirt quite often these days. I have been transplanting yellow primroses, succulents, day lilies and sunflowers, focusing on the integrity of the roots, noticing how each root system is different. For example, some plants require a full root for transplanting while others need a ...
Earth Etude for Elul 2 – Elul Writing Project
by Molly Bajgot We’re nearing a time when the Earth will not provide as bountifully as it has in the past. In exchange for a loss of resources, I believe the Earth is pleading for us humans to return to ourselves, our deep souls, so we recognize a bounty that lives within us. Could this lead to the feeling of fertility in the human spirit, we may extend the times of plenty. Answering this call is not easy. We cannot stop deadlines so we ...
Earth Etude for 1 Elul – Restoring The New Year for Animals
by Richard H. Schwartz Today is Rosh Chodesh Elul, the beginning of the month before Rosh Hashanah, when the shofar is blown at weekday morning services (except on Shabbat), and Jews are to examine their deeds and consider how to align their lives more with Jewish values. When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, Rosh Chodesh Elul was a New Year for Animals, a day devoted to tithing for animal sacrifices. ...
Earth Etudes for Elul Are Coming
This evening we enter into the last day of the Jewish month of Av. Tomorrow evening we begin the journey through the month of Elul, leading up to Rosh HaShanah and the Days of Awe. Tomorrow evening we begin the process of spiritual preparation, and on Tuesday morning for the first time we hear the sound of the shofar, reminding us of the call to teshuvah, to return - return to the Holy One of Blessing, the Merciful One. To help us along our ...
Parashat Sh’mot – Heirloom Seeds, Our Ancestors, and Friendship
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen My first seeds from the Seed Library arrived in the mail today, part of a gift membership that I had given to myself. Gift packets to my two sons arrived in their mail as well. The packet is artistic, aesthetic, and pleasing not only to the eye, but also to the heart and the soul. Every packet is designed by a different artist. Inside are heirloom seeds, in the one I received are Purple Podded Peas. These are peas ...
Earth Etude for 29 Elul
May We Open Photos by Gabi Mezger Text by Rabbi Katy Allen May we all unfold and open our hearts. May we bloom and blossom in colors vivid and energetic. May we find butterflies in our midst, seeking our sweetness. Thank you for traveling through Elul with us. Thank you ...
Earth Etude for 27 Elul
The Known and the Unknown by Rabbi Anne Heath I celebrated my first Hanukkah amongst my siblings and their children celebrating yet another family Christmas. We had gathered for winter break in Santa Fe, NM, at our brother's home, glad to be together after travels of varying distances and difficulties. My lengthy, made-it-in-one-day drive from St. Louis culminated in a wondrous night ...
Earth Etude for 26 Elul
Hashem's "Gaslands"* by Judith Feldstein My Lord, You sent us not a burning bush, but Your flaming water; a fire that lives in gas and is not drowned in H2O, with flames that are not quenched, and danger not consumed until we hear and live your will and love Your home as part of You. Last year You gave us Elul with the kiss and aftermath of Your Irene's with all the might of ordained winds and ...
Earth Etude for 25 Elul
Rocks in my Life by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein They say that Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the world. It is an opportunity filled with new beginnings. Everything seems fresh and new. So much more so out in G-d's glorious creation, singing psalms that express that majesty. Many Rosh Hashanah mornings have found me at Plum Island before sunrise or a Walden Pond trying to figure out in Thoreau's words, "I went to the ...
Earth Etude for 24 Elul
MEDITATION on ELUL by Richard H. Schwartz Elul is here. It represents an opportunity for heightened introspection, a chance to consider teshuva, changes in our lives, before the “Days of Awe,” the days of judgment, the “High holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The shofar is blown every morning (except on Shabbat) in synagogues during the month of Elul to awaken us from slumber, to remind us to consider where we are ...
Earth Etude for 23 Elul
Returning from Forgetting by Alexander Volfson Elul, I’m told, is “a time to return to our best selves.” Upon reading these words this time, something struck me: what if we, every year, are perpetually returning from the same forgetting? We would do a greater justice to G-d and ourselves if we took the time to deeply understand why we turned away in the first place. The truth is that the most compelling ...
